Studiopsd Using Remote Director to Change Industry Mindset

Friday, August 05, 2005

Press release from the issuing company

New York, NY; August 3, 2005 – While many in the industry talk of remote proofing’s ability to save time and decrease costs, New York City-based Studiopsd is using it as a tool for breaking down barriers and changing the industry’s mindset. An award-winning, full-service, pre-media studio known for its creative reputation and client service, Studiopsd selected Remote Director from Integrated Color Solutions (ICS) as a means to accomplish their goals.
“We’re pioneering something new in this industry, moving both upstream and downstream,” remarks Kevin Brucato, director of Studiopsd. “We’ve combined the perspective of a client with the insight of a creative director to create a studio devoted to the end product.”
Sitting at the forefront of the industry, Studiopsd earns its reputation by maintaining the highest creative standards and employing the cutting-edge technology, such as Remote Director.
“This technology has allowed us to streamline our workflow,” explains Paul Foley, Studiopsd’s print services manager. “It’s incredibly clean and very efficient and allows us to offer competitive pricing, which obviously benefits our clients.”
In his position, Foley oversees the retouching and premedia divisions of the company, which began as an in-house studio of advertising giant Lowe Worldwide and has grown into a separate, and very successful, company. Now, Studiopsd works with a number of advertising agencies in New York City, including Draft Worldwide, as well as others throughout the country and Remote Director is having a tremendous impact.
“We do a lot of retouching for Draft and, with Remote Director, we’re giving them better technology and we’re able to eliminate the back and forth in order to get images approved,” Foley adds. That’s a tremendous advantage, even though the two companies are both in the Big Apple and just blocks apart. “Minutes make a difference to these people and we easily save four hours a day using this technology.”
While it may be hard to imagine “minutes” being a big concern, it’s easy to understand how they add up when you’re outputting a 32-page catalog and only have a 24-hour window in which to do it. That’s what Studiopsd does for Draft, on behalf of their client, Hewlett-Packard. “We started working on the HP catalogs in January of this year and have received feedback from the client that there has been a substantial improvement in both the quality and the time savings, thanks to Remote Director,” Brucato says. “Because the file transfer is instantaneous, we’re able initiate a simple phone call to go over corrections and changes and we can make them in real time.”
Not only is the workflow streamlined at Studiopsd, but it is also color managed. “We follow the SNAP, GRACoL, SWOP profiles and use them as guidelines, but then we also create our own profiles, based on the printer we’re working with, the press we’ll be running the job on and the stock we’ll printing to,” explains Foley, “and that makes an incredible difference. It saves time and makes the makeready flow.
The color-managed workflow extends through all of their devices, including Remote Director as well as the company’s Fujifilm PictroProof and FinalProof GxT, allowing them to make changes and color correct via Remote Director and then output to a hard copy with the confidence that the color will be reliable.
“As remote proofing becomes more prevalent, you’re seeing a gradual shift in the mindset of the industry,” Foley says. “Remote Director is the tool to use for breaking down the barriers that exist in the graphic arts industry, both geographical barriers and the more traditional barriers in terms of accepted methods.”
“We’re using it with tremendous success,” Brucato says. “It benefits us internally, and our clients are also experiencing the benefits. That’s helped us to establish good relationships with them and has meant continued growth and success for Studiopsd.”